Chapter Thirty-Two

Water poured into her lungs, filling them to the brim. She tried to cough it up, but unrelenting pressure crushed her chest as more and more water poured in, seemingly endless. Darkness encroached on her vision from the lack of light or her brain shutting down she did not know. All she knew was she had to swim to the surface, but her leaden limbs refused to respond.

Her mind grew foggy but a will to live persisted. Despite a force pushing her downward far faster than she should sink, she continued to fight, but all she could accomplish was a few twitches as her body grew cold from the deep ocean depths.

Any will to continue fighting eroded as hallucinations of her family flowed through her mind, hammering in the fact she was the only one left. The image of her dead twin lingered in her mind, further crushing her resolve. What was the point of continuing on without her? She had no one left.

As she gave into the inevitable, hoping to join her family once more, the surrounding water glowed green as a rejuvenating warmth soaked into her every pore.

Changes occurred throughout her body as the energy poured in. Her once deep brown hair and tanned skin bleached as dark bluish green veins lit up in the dark waters. The energy reached her heart just as it beat its last, but instead of restarting it, the energy surrounded the still organ and consumed it, leaving a glowing core in its place which pulsed slowly but with strength.

With each pulse, her body took a step away from humanity and onto the road to elementalhood

Dim consciousness grew from the very last spark, but the warmth intensified, holding her back from reaching awareness.

In her unaware mind, a voice spoke with a soft, loving power. “Sleep, my daughter. Your father is safe with me. You must focus on recovering. Your sister is alive and will need your help soon. You must reach her as soon as you can. Together, you two will fend off any obstacles in your way. I will be watching and help when I can, but my powers are limited. You two must forge your own paths together. Farwell, my beloved daughter.”

As the presence withdrew, so did the green energy, sending Sereia into a deep slumber while floating deep below the ocean’s surface. As if warded away, no predators dared come near, despite being an easy target.

Greenish blue eyes flickered open as hundreds of dings fired off in her head. However, against her gamer instincts, she pushed them off. A headache built from the rapid assault, but yet again she ignored it as she sat up to find herself in a lavishly decorated bedroom with a sea theme. Pearls and gold encrusted sea shells adorned with seems like every nook and cranny contrasted by polished dark wood that gave off the feeling of a ship cabin but looked way too fancy at the same time.

Suddenly, an overwhelming urge to look to the east descended on her. As soon as she did, a connection snapped into place, followed by a vision of her beloved sister walking down what appeared to be a post-apocalyptic version of Main Street from their hometown. Despite the changed appearance, she knew it was her twin. She knew her twin was alive, and she knew she had to reach her, no matter what.

As if sensing her desire, her twin looked westward, seemingly directly into her eyes, only reinforcing her need to reach her sister.

Just then, a knock at the door sounded, but she ignored it in favor of continuing to watch her twin investigate docked boats. Several of which she recognized from her random walks with her friends.

An energy not too dissimilar from what she now felt within her but still foreign permeated the vision, causing her eyes to widen as panic shot through her.

A massive wave of unnatural proportions loomed over her twin. She opened her mouth to cry out to warn her, causing her twin to suddenly notice the wave and begin running.

Before she could see if her twin survived the wave, the door to her room opened, revealing several people with unusually colored hair and glowing veins of various colors, all wearing serious but respectful expressions. The lead person, a woman with dark blue hair wearing nothing but seashells, approached her bed giving a respectful nod before speaking. “Greetings, blessed one. We must make you presentable to the high elemental.”

Sereia’s head snapped to the woman scowling at them for interrupting her twin watching, but deep down she knew her sister survived, so she calmed herself, knowing she shouldn’t be disrespectful to some unknown people when she had no idea where she was. If she was going to find her sister, she would need to figure out where she was herself. A glance to the east told her Elysia was well over ten thousand kilometers away, driving home how difficult her journey may be.

After a deep breath, which reminded her she hadn’t taken a breath since she woke up, her curious side awoke. Despite knowing asking the wrong question could bite her in the ass, not knowing was just as bad, so she queued up a question barrage. “Blessed one? What is that?”

With a patient expression having dealt with newly born elementals before the seashell clad woman spoke, “the storm goddess blessed you on your birth my lady. You are destined for great things and as such, the high water elemental would like to meet you.”

Since birth? What do they mean? Sure, she liked standing in the rain, especially after their mother died, but she never felt blessed. Elysia love to run in the rain too, so it wasn’t like she was alone. If anything, her sister was more blessed than her. She was amazing at everything, whether it be sports or grades. If it wasn’t for her twin constantly pestering her to study, she might not have even graduated high school.

Despite her thoughts, deep down she knew the real reason she struggled was just to force her reclusive twin to spend time with her. Many times, she actively ignored the teacher during class so her twin could teach her instead.

The seashell clad woman stared at her strangely as a goofy smile bloomed on the newly minted elemental, but she pushed thoughts on the subject away, chalking it up to a blessed one’s eccentricness. The high elemental and his heir had several unusual quirks as well, after all.

Figuring she may as well meet whoever this high elemental was, Sereia threw away the covers to find someone dressed her in some silky gown. Faster than she could react, the other members of the seashell clad woman’s entourage attacked with fervor.

The gown practically vanished, replaced with a similar seashell based outfit covering nothing more than a bikini. Unlike the other women, her seashell bikini had pearls and gold inlaid in a fancy pattern. She found the decorations a step too far into gaudy territory, but with the gown gone and no other clothes with in sight, she had to accept it.

Going by what the other women were wearing, it was probably some sort of dress code. Oh, how she hated her school dress code. She hated having others decide what she had to wear. At the first opportunity, she would discard this too. At least it was comfortable, which didn’t make sense but what little she had seen so far very little made sense to her.

With only slight reluctance, she allowed the other seashell clad women to direct her out of the room and down a hall. A glance out the window told her she was, in fact, on a ship with nothing but water as far as the eye could see. This ship was massive too, if her vantage point meant anything.

Fortunately, it only took a couple minutes to reach a pair of massive jewel encrusted doors which opened as they approached, revealing a just as oversized banquet hall filled with seashell clad women of various levels of gaudy and ripped shirtless men.

At least the so-called uniform was just as revealing for everyone. On the bright side, the temperature was a nice tropical warm. She could probably regain her tan in no time. After she reunited with her sister, of course.

Her escort led her to three raised thrones, the highest center one being occupied by a massive man who, while shirtless like the others he lacked any jewelry, looking somewhat humble despite his obviously high station. On a throne slightly lower than his on the left was his opposite, a beautiful seashell clad woman with flowing bright blue hair. Unfortunately, she had way too much jewelry ruining her beauty, at least in Sereia’s opinion. It almost didn’t matter that she had the same revealing seashell clad outfit when she was practically cocooned in jewelry of every manner.

No wonder the presumed high elemental looked humble. That woman probably bled him dry. She smothered a chuckle as she directed her attention to the last throne. Set at the same level as the jewelry cocooned woman’s throne, but to the right of the high elemental was another seashell clad woman who had a similar level of dress to herself. It crossed the line into gaudy, but it wasn’t over the top like the other woman.

As soon as she made eye contact with the third person, a power flared directly at her, but on instinct she glared back, standing her ground, causing the woman’s eyes to widen momentarily.

Something clicked within Sereia at the power still trying to push her down, sending red-hot rage pumping through her veins. The high elemental opened his mouth with a jovial expression to greet her, only for Sereia’s veins to glow brightly as she glared up at the woman with murder in her eyes. “How dare you!”

Scales sprouted from Sereia’s legs as they pulled closer together. At the same time, water gathered in her surroundings, swirling in a violent torrent.

Before the attack could gain momentum, the water suddenly stilled at the raise of the high elemental’s hand. His once jovial expression replaced with rage. “What is the meaning of this!?”

He glared at his heir to his right, and Sereia demanding an explanation as the room turned silent. Eyes glowing and blue green scales becoming more pronounced, Sereia fought against the far superior force like a mad woman allowing his heir to speak instead. “I don’t know, your highness. Maybe it’s just an overreaction from an unstable young elemental. We are both blessed. There is bound to be some hostility, especially from one as young as her.”

Rage once more gone, replaced with a thoughtful expression. “Perhaps. I’d still like to hear her side of things.”

His heir scowled but nodded her head as they both turned their attention to the writhing young elemental struggling against the high elemental’s casual suppression.

Through gritted teeth, Sereia growled. “That bitch tried to kill my sister!”

The high elemental raised his brow, slightly confused. “Sister? Elementals don’t have siblings.”

A moment later realization dawned as he connected the pieces, rage once again at the forefront. “Capture her! Blessing or not, we cannot allow an impure one among our ranks.”

The suppression quadrupled, forcing Sereia to her knees, but before the surrounding elementals could reach her, a second wind of glowing green energy bolstered her. Terrified, Sereia dashed toward an open window, the scales covering her legs rapidly growing as her strides grew shorter and shorter. Just as she jumped through the window, her legs joined in a sparkling blue green scaled fishtail.

On instinct, she dove deep underwater and flapped her newly formed tail as hard as she could, causing her to shoot through the water far faster than what should be possible. Within seconds, the massive fleet of ships became dots on the horizon, but Sereia continued to push herself harder and harder in the direction of where she knew her sister was.

She would get her revenge on that bitch, but first, she needed to reach her sister. No matter what, she must protect her sister and in turn her sister would protect her.